I'd really advice dropping all the 1x of stuff, it's not good for synergy (making the cards work together and be flexible). The rule is generally:

4x: Something you want in your opening hand, or to draw early on

3x: Something you want to see in the game

2x: Something that would be nice to see in the game

1x: Something you don't mind drawing, but can live without.

Like Mr. Goblins above me mentioned, you may want to up your 1-ofs, but seeing as they are strictly cards you own, I can see how that can be troublesome.

I would suggest looking for investing in Primordial Hydra - when coupled with a Corpsejack Menace ... fun stuff happens. It also interacts favourably with Ooze Flux. I would also suggest cutting down to 60 cards (possibly from your landbase - 28 lands seems a bit excessive).

Other than that, I see what you're going for, and I think you're doing well, especially considering that you're not just making googly eyes at cards on Gatherer; you actually make something out of the cards you've got lying around. +1 for that!

Albino, are you trying to bankrupt the guy? Do you know how much Primordial Hydra costs these days? XD

:o Omigosh! But they are so much fuuuun.

I can't disagree. I reluctantly coughed up for two to put in to my own counter deck, Predator Ooze.

Thanks for the advice! I've tried to take some of it on board while sticking within my price limit haha

Simic-Golgari BUG is my favorite!

Because youve got a massive number of four drops, most of which are your star players, adding Farseek to get them out on T3 is going to be big for you.

Also, since this kind of deck is all about your creatures eventually becoming bigger than they are, I highly recommend adding some instants to deal with that. Counterspells (Spell Rupture is actually viable here since youll usually have a decent sized creature by the time you need to use it, and easy to cast) and charms (Simic Charm for sure, sideboard Golgari Charm against decks that use Supreme Verdict)])

Finally I suggest adding Lotleth Troll because hes cheap, can save you from early aggro as a regenerating chump-blocker, & he also synergizes with Corpsejack Menace if you want to use his ability to make him a giant monster as well. You might think you dont want to chuck your creatures to give him a counter, but when youre getting overwhelmed by Rakdos swarmers and youve got a hand full of four drops you cant cast yet, youll change your tune pretty quickly.

I would say depending on your local play styles to sideboard the Naturalize in my meta anyways there is not a lot of artifacts or enchants that need removal right now. I would recommend getting some more general purpose removal. Simic Charm would be great in this deck. Can pump your creatures, can stop them from being targeted and can bounce a big threat back to their hand and clear the way for your creatures to hit. That card alone won me a couple draft games a couple weeks ago. Also if you can get your hands on the "shock" lands from the current set they pair really nicely with Arbor Elf the shock lands are the ones that come into play tapped unless you pay two life. Arbor Elf allows you to untap the forest lands and tap them a second time increasing your mana. And with a Farseek in play and two elfs you can have up to 6 mana on turn 3.

Turn 3 then play a Gyre Sage followed by Corpsejack Menace to evolve the sage and get two +1/+1 on it. So turn 3 you have a 4/4 and a 3/4 evolver that on turn 4 you can drop a Deadbridge Goliath evolving the Gyre Sage into a 5/6 and allowing you to tap for another 4 green mana.

Now as to what to cut to make room for the Arbor Elf I would cut Quirion Dryad it is good and you are going to get counters on it but you already have enough creatures that are going to get pumped losing this one shouldnt be a big issue.

Also have you done the math on what Deadbridge Goliath scavenges for if all 4 Corpsejack Menace are on the field, its 80 +1/+1 counters lol.

Well hope some of this helps and good luck.

farseek is okay but its almost not worth drawing in my opinion. I would rather just draw a land.

jaggthemiller, why do you say that?

The Farseek is for getting land out sooner, and ensuring I draw less land when things get more crucial (I use Harrow when I'm not playing standard, which does an even better job of that)

My Fathom Mage , Zameck Guildmage and Elvish Visionary ensure I draw quite enough lands. I'm genuinely curious, if there's something I've missed I'd love to know!

well just in my opinion its just mana fetching to me isnt bad. it is a good thing and useful specially them games your mana starved but you have 22 lands which is well enough to get your 5 mana that is in your deck ( expect for 1 creature) so mana fetch is almost only needed in the few games your mana starved in with your highest thing being 5 mana to play it. but its up to you im not saying take them out, just make sure they work well against bigger people

Gyre Sage and Vastwood Hydra go great with this. I did something similar Johnny's Combo.

Shvian

Wow, that's a pretty sweet deck! I have a couple of Gyre Sage but I never found it as helpful as it should be... having said that, that was in a very early form of this deck, so I'll put them back in and test that a bit!

Vastwood Hydra is an absolute beast! I keep considering it, then forgetting about it, I can only imagine it would go really well in here (it's super cheap too) I'll give it a try!

I only wish I could get a playset of Kalonian Hydra like in your deck haha

I notice as well that you have a playset of Renegade Krasis in yours, I have two myself, what do you think of them in my deck? I'm not actually a huge fan of evolve strangely enough, so I'm not 100% sure about it!

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! I gave you a +1 because your deck is cool

Gyre Sage can be slow when you can't seem to get a higher power/toughness creature out right away. However, it quickly becomes an indispensable mana ramp and suprisingly large creature. It's arguably the most important creature in my deck.

Since running 3 colors is harder than ever (thinking post-roto), I found it necessary to run Manaweft Sliver . It doesn't scale like Gyre Sage , but just think of it as a super Elvish Mystic - you can tap it for any color mana you need next turn. So in that way, it is superior to Gyre Sage and Elvish Mystic .

I think the whole evolve mechanic is weak on it's own. Counter modifier creatures like Master Biomancer and Corpsejack Menace make it more viable, but you really really need ramp and a certain amount of X-cost creatures to nearly guarantee evolves. They will trigger the +1/1 counter drops which then allows you to cast a larger-yet X-cost creature and the cycle continues. In between those, you will immediately benefit from the ramp given and can cast other spells that will hopefully either bring an element of utility to enforce your mechanics or be a big game-winning beater (Master Biomancer , Corpsejack Menace , Renegade Krasis , Primeval Bounty , Death's Presence , a huge X-coster, other creatures you plan to evolve, etc.

I like Renegade Krasis because he has a place in every single part of the game. Early game, he can evolve your Cloudfin Raptor s, Experiment One s, or Gyre Sage s. Mid and late game he can be played among creatures already evolved beyond his power and toughness. Then when he evolves, he lets you place counters on the otherwise inaccessibly-large evolved creatures to make them stronger yet. Even multiple Renegade Krasis s out on the field is a great thing for effect stacking.

The best part about all of these elements is that when combined, they create an extreme synergy with evolve such that it turns into a pretty big threat imo.

I grabbed some ideas from your deck as well. I knew I wanted some Spell Rupture s but hadn't found a spot yet. Also Nimbus Swimmer is amazing. I am considering a playset of those, as I follow my own advice and look into using more X-cost creatures. Board clears and cards like Slaughter Games (can't counter) and Council of the Absolute can bring evolve down to its knees due to its complex system. A playset of duress helps with that as much as it can be helped I believe. (along with the spell ruptures)

Lastly, I don't have all of the cards I make decks with on here. I simply craft here, test a ton with friends, then make my final decisions and make a single purchase.

With all that said, your deck is looking great. Keep it up!

Also, I can't run Fathom Mage or Prime Speaker Zegana because I would end up drawing way past 7 cards at a time on occasion and have to discard them lol.

Shvian

So I've put Gyre Sage in the deck, after a few test matches it's not actually been in my hand once, so I'll have to keep with that.

I really like the idea of Vastwood Hydra now, I think I'll have to get myself some of them, they'd work really well to evolve Gyre Sage etc. Plus with Corpsejack Menace out, him dying will cause my creatures to get a pretty major boost hopefully.

I love Fathom Mage , it's annoying how easily removable/high-costed she is, but with a Master Biomancer out on the field I make an excellent return on her (a 3/3 and two cards at least for 4, not too shabby) plus Ivy Lane Denizen and evolving her let me draw quite a few cards steadily until somebody gets rid of her, which is also usually good for me as they have to focus on her rather than my other threats. I'm personally not a fan of Prime Speaker Zegana though, you only get to draw those cards once.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated!

I'd play Shambleshark over Skylasher if you want the flash. You should play Experiment One and maybe Renegade Krasis . I find Vorel of the Hull Clade to be too slow to make much of an impact. Zameck Guildmage and Bred for the Hunt really help to draw some cards. Check out my deck Land Exchange

ZToups

Hi, thanks for the feeback!

Skylasher isn't in there so much for the flash, it's to give myself some protection against flyers, also it's great against those blue control decks.

Experiment One seems like a good card, though I'm not 100% sure why I'd play it apart from the fact that I have no other turn one plays.

Renegade Krasis is very much already a "maybe". I've got two of them, tried them a while ago and found they didn't really fit with the deck for some reason, maybe because I'm not actually trying to evolve in this deck, I'm more using Master Biomancer and Ivy Lane Denizen however, I'll give it a try and see how it works!

Agreed, Vorel of the Hull Clade is pretty slow, I mainly keep him in here because there are times when using him on a Fathom Mage draws me a load of cards for 2 mana.

I tried Zameck Guildmage , I won't be using it again, it just seemed kind of crappy in comparison to some of the other plays I could be doing (doubling the counters on a Fathom Mage using Vorel, rather than removing one to draw, etc.)

Bred for the Hunt is a weird one, I'll have to test that out. I have at least a playset of them, it always seemed quite a slow card to me though. Having said that, I'm very much in need of a good T3 play, so I'll try swapping that in and see how it goes!

Sorry if I sounded too negative, I'll try all your suggestions out and see how it goes! Thanks a lot!

+1 to your deck by the way, purely because I'd hate to play against it haha

MikeLaserbeam:

Main reasons to play Experiment One are it's a turn one drop, everything evolves it, and it survives against removal more times then not. It's a very aggro based and hard to deal with creature (which is why it's a ~$1.50 uncommon). I played a deck like that for a while and found Fathom Mage to be amazing when it works and horrid when you draw it without Master Biomancer , Bred for the Hunt provides more reliable draw if you can keep the aggro on the board. Being so heavy on four drops really hurts as it is.

ZToups

Agreed, Fathom Mage certainly works best with Master Biomancer , but I'm not at all worried about it if I have a Corpsejack Menace in hand etc.

I'll try out Experiment One and Bred for the Hunt though, they do seem like they could be at least ok!

This is the coolest budget deck I've ever seen. I can't wait to build it.

Banthony245

Wow! Seriously? Thanks a lot man, I'm glad you like it so much!

Though it's getting closer and closer to not being budget as I work on it! If I had my way I'd have at least two Kalonian Hydra in here haha

ZToups

So I tried Bred for the Hunt and Experiment One , I'm afraid to say I wasn't particularly impressed. I really don't think they work that well in here, probably because this deck tends to sit back until a turn when Crowned Ceratok and Ivy Lane Denizen make all my creatures big enough to strike without worry (and trample). So Bred for the Hunt just isn't drawing me any cards until it's too late really.

Experiment One absolutely seems like a great card, but I couldn't make it work in here, unless I have Master Biomancer out, it never seemed to evolve reliably enough for me, and then it was just a dud draw later in the game. Having said that, I may have just replaced the wrong thing with it, what would you swap out for it?

Have you tested this or the updated version in FNM?

Banthony245

I'm currently nowhere near an FNM, but when I go back to university I'll be able to go to one again. I have played a slightly older version of this deck at that FNM, but when I did the store had only just been set up, so we were basically playing casual (e.g. multiplayer against modern decks)

I did pretty well, didn't lose any games, but that doesn't really tell me how it holds up in a Standard match as I was only playing things like Allies, Eldrazi and Merfolk Tribal.

I have tested this a lot on Cockatrice though. It's very hard to say how it holds up on there, (because most people are using unrealistically expensive decks) but I don't do terribly. My biggest weakness are any sort of control decks, either I regenerate from a Supreme Verdict and rush my creatures out fast enough not to be countered, or I get completely destroyed. As a result, I'm in the process of getting my hands on some Savage Summoning

Most other matches it's a hit-and-miss. Some games I get totally dud draws and get annihilated, some games my opponent ragequits because of my 20/22 Master Biomancer

The deck needs to be a lot more consistent, I'm already rethinking the playsets of Golgari Charm , Farseek and Putrefy as I've just played 3 games where I've not had a creature for 5 turns.

If you have any advice as to what I could put/change in here to make it better, I'm always up for suggestions!